What percentage retro?

Disco Drive

Disco Drive

Senior Retro Guru
O.K we all ride retro framesets but how many of us had to bite the bullet and go for newer parts to finish that build or even chose to?

Ihave a '92 Klein Attitude with a disk drive and XT thumbies and chose to finish it with an XTR M952 groupo and more modern Race Face crankset so that makes it around 80% retro in my reckoning?

I also have my road steed... a '93 Cannondale sm500 with Pace RC 35's, XT thumbies, xtr mechs, hope hubs and newer finishing components such as Race Face bars and Crankset, new style USE Ti post and Avid brake levers. Say 70% Retro.

My question is this: does a bike still qualify as being retro by having a best of both worlds mix of old and new provided the majority is old school?
 
get it built get it ridden for me!! If you can keep it retro or choose to wait, thats cool. Each to their own :D
 
I plan on using my bikes - I'll go retro where I know I can trust the parts but I'm not putting any of that chichi rubbish that used to break all the time on it.

XTR V-brakes will almost certainly be being used because I love-em.
 
My Vit T is running non-retro tyres, rims and front mech :oops:
Also Pauls 'V' brakes which I'd class as semi-retro, they're not the same era as the frame but they work great so what the hell.
Its running a modern hope seatpost clamp and headset but these are anodised purple so count as retro in my book ;)
 
With abit of luck the Yo will be 100% retro when fully rebuilt - well, except for the paint colour...!

The daily commuter (once I've decided what it's going to be!) will probably only be about 90-95% retro as I'll need modern slicks on an everyday ride...
 
This is interesting so far as there seem to be no 100% retro rides out there.
Makes me feel a little better for compromising where i did. :oops: :)
 
Saracen's retro & original spec... apart from the fact that it's getting slicks.
Proflex is retro apart from the 9speed XT gears & brakes! :LOL:
Orange is a mish mash - none of it's modern but most of it's newer than the frame.
GT's not very retro itself, but most of the bits are from the same era.

Horses for courses... I'll build up an old skool frame with pimpy CNC stuff sometime, but I wouldn't want that stuff on a bike that gets used & abused all the time!
 
I would classify my P20 as retro, but it does have modern bits. Arch Supreme brakes, XTR 9spd, splined bb, e-type mech in order to get the most out of it. The way the bike feels and rides is retro, but the components make it possible to live with more modern bikes :D
 
Depends on how retro you mean.

My bikes are pretty well retro - well at least a 3 year difference in the frame/forks and bits. Like to keep it reasonably close.

I wouldnt get too concerned over say the use of a cartidge BB for example in a 1990 frameset.
 
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